Thursday, August 20, 2009

All in all, we seemed to order around 9 different dishes. Mostly medium-sized portions and a couple of large ones.

Som Tham (Green Papaya Salad)

Ever since I watched that Thai action-comedy of the same name, I've been bugging my bro to get me this (no, it wasn't a craving of sorts!). If you watch that movie, believe me, you'll wanna eat this too!

The tangy sour-spicy-sweet taste of the sauce is what the deal is all about. What more they used the larger version of dried shrimps, which brought me back to the days in Bangkok, where I ate the Som Tham ordered from the street vendors there.

Green Curry

We last had this at Magic Wok (Capitol branch). The lingering mild curry taste never fail to impress us all. There are chunks of chicken meat and egg-plant inside.

Squid Fritters

We were debating between the squid and the prawns. My bro eventually settled for this, seeing how he like his (deep) fried stuff.

Upon biting into it, I asked my mum if this squid has eggs (roe) for in between the rings of meat was a translucent piece of something which I can't make out. My mum wondered if they has mistakenly given us the stuffed squid instead.

Love it! The batter was nicely spiced and the sweet Thai sauce on the side totally complement the fritters.

Ginger Chicken

The restaurant ran out of the famous Pandan Chicken so my bro settled for this instead. I was apprehensive so I asked if this is a stir-fried dish (my bro may not like soggy stuff!). The Thai staff can only say that it's 'cooked in Chinese wok'.

When it came out, my bro gave a taste and remarked it to taste, "Superb!"

Well, in my opinion, one can never go wrong with ginger and chicken, right? And those thick strips of old ginger does give the chicken chunks the added zing. And the onions add on to sweeten it nicely.

Beef in Red Sauce

Honestly, I can't recall what the actual name of the dish was. I only know there's 'beef and 'red'.

The tender slices of fried beef came stir-fried in a thick sweet and spicy sauce which coats the meat nicely, making it look like it was barbecued instead. The were generous amount of 'kailan' (Chinese vegetable) too and I almost thought that this was the Kailan w/ Beef that we've ordered. My dad reminded me that the server had specified the name of the dish upon serving it.

My mum insist on ordering this for her son-in-law, knowing how much he love his beef.

Seafood Tom Yam

Oh, how can one dine in a Thai restaurant and not order this?

Nicely done, though I believe that the one I had in Bangkok still taste the best (duh!).

3-Flavour Fish Strips

I opt to have the fish in fillet form, for convenience and didn't expect the portion to be pretty small, so we immediately asked for another portion.

The 2nd batch came out much nicer, the seabass fillets crispier. The sauce tasted great, naturally. A little bit on the sweet side though and less spicy than the ones served in Chinese style eateries.

Kailan with Beef

This comes as a pleasant surprise. And it DOES look similar to the previous beef dish that we ordered.

We had totally expected a dish similar to what we've always eaten at other (Chinese-style) eateries. Little did we expect the thinly-sliced beef to be pounded before being fried, giving it a texture much akin to beef jerky. And the fact that they used my favourite cut of meat, the 'curry-meat' where there are equal amount of sinewy tendon and meat in each slice.

Man, I can eat the beef on it's own. Seeing that they used the regular-sized 'kailan' instead of the more leafy 'baby' version, they also included the stems which were sliced thinly. They were tender and surprisingly sweet.

Glass Noodle Salad

Seeing that this was a starter dish, we had expected this to come together with the Som Tham. It came out last and became quite the finisher. Maybe because they need to soak the glass noodles first.

Despite being a 'salad' dish like the Som Tham, it tasted entirely different. The sauce tasted much milder but there's definitely something that accentuate the glass noodle, though i cant figure out what.

And it came with 2 large prawns and some squids, which were most likely boiled before being tossed into the salad mixing bowl.

This is good enough to be eaten on its own...

------------------------------------------------------------ Would you believe that the whole meal set my bro back only $78++? When he came back, he looked all grave and we asked, "How many hundred was it?"

He gave us a quizzical look, "Not even there.."

I looked at the receipt, and remarked to my dad, "Pa, it's not even $80!"

"I wonder if they had miscounted..." my bro muttered. No wonder he looked so lost.

The proprietor then came out for a smoke and took the opportunity to thank us and start a small conversation with the guys. He said that the upper level can be accomodated for a large family who had made advanced booking.

Wow, good food, good service, good company.. good pricing! Location wise.. it may not be easy for drivers. We came on a quiet Sunday afternoon (before 6pm) and we only managed a lot at the end of Jalan Keledek.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

My bro somehow decide to give the family a treat and he was recommended this Thai restaurant by my cousins, who said that it was owned by a schoolmate's mum, who's a Thai herself.

They went there 2 weeks back with their family and the reviews remained positive.

This Southern Thai Cuisine Restaurant is a small restaurant that fronts North Bridge Road, between Jalan Pisang and Jalan Keledek. Oh, the most obvious will be the fact that it's right next door to the famed Islamic Restaurant.

The 'hibiscus' in this case is not the standard 'bunga raya' that's Malaysia's national flower. This one here is the 'roselle' variant.

The lemongrass is also not the usual one used for cooking (like in the tom yam). Here, what's used is what the Malays call 'serai wangi' (fragrant lemongrass) and like it's name, it's way more fragrant than the usual variety.

My bro's Watermelon w/ milk

It's either this or Papaya w/ Milk. I told him that he pay a visit to Singapore Polytechnic, where every foodcourt serve this. One even had the papaya juice all ready to be scooped out from a container, even.

Condiments - Chili padi ....

... Which no longer appeal to me, sadly. Ever since my pregnancy, I have not been able to tolerate really spicy foods. Chili padi is a big no-no. *sob!

Sunday, August 16, 2009

I don't know what came over me, but I actually felt like cooking that Friday evening at my parent's place.

My bro's fave dish, no less. Baked penne in cream sauce.

Since my cousin was over at my place to look out for my mum, I got her to meet me at the nearby NTUC (I need someone to help me carry my purchases).

That NTUC branch was a disappointment.. No cream, no (western) herbs and minimal pasta variety. Thankfully, there's Penne available (my bro's fave - I personally prefer the Linguine).

My mum told me of the shabu-shabu beef in the fridge and I dump that in with the Shitake mushrooms and chicken sausages.

Not contented with just the standard creamy pasta, I dumped some boiled penne into a dish, heaped on that, the cream sauce and topped the whole thing with lotsa cheese (cheddar, mozarella and even more parmesan) and baked the whole thing.

The pasta being baked (yes, I know.. that oven needs some cleaning..)

It was almost 9pm when I start to bake the pasta. it was such an agonising wait!

Finally!

My cousin tucking in first.

Enjoy!

In my hunger, I realised that I got a tad greedy and baked too much pasta for the both of us. What more when my cousin only dug around the shabu-shabu beef and spend more time picking her fried chicken (yes, we prepared that too).

Thankfully, I left enough sauce for my bro AND his friend, who sprung a surprise visit later that night.